Samsung Papyrus: Budget ebook reader heads for UK

By Rich Trenholm on 26 March 2009, 10:55am

While it may seem like it's all go in the wacky world of ebooks lately, almost all of the news has been entirely US-centric. Those of us on this side of the pond who can't wait for the ebook revolution will no doubt be giddy with glee at the news, reported by Pocket-lint, that the Samsung Papyrus ebook reader may make it here first.

The Papyrus was unveiled at CES 2009. It's an A5-size e-ink device, measuring 147 by 211mm. Crucially, that's all screen, baby -- unlike the Kindle, which has a keyboard.

Crave would rather have more screen real estate for actual, y'know, reading. So the Papyrus' touchscreen appeals to us, with an included aluminium stylus tapping into a memo pad, scheduler, calendar, world clock, calculator and contact list.

It's something of a no frills model, however: 512MB of internal memory but no SD card slot or Wi-Fi. On the upside, that's reflected in the price, with reports suggesting it will cost less than $300 (£210) when it hits Korea in June, and Blighty shortly after. That's about forty quid cheaper than the Kindle and seventy quid cheaper than Sony's Reader.